As the use of mobile wireless devices, such as smart phones and tablet devices, becomes more ubiquitous, the demands on the limited amount of radio frequency spectrum used by those devices also increases, resulting in wireless network congestion in the licensed spectrum. In addition, the increased use of high bandwidth applications such as audio and video streaming can increase demands beyond the capability of the available spectrum. This is especially true in high density and high use locations such as large cities and universities. One projection estimates a growth of 20 times in mobile internet traffic from 2010 to 2015.
Improvements in wireless architectures, hardware design, and processor speed have significantly increased the efficiency of wireless devices in their use of the available spectrum. However, the ability to transmit a greater number of bits per second per hertz of available bandwidth may be reaching an upper limit with the currently available battery technology.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.